Will the Circle be Unbroken? Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenge of Conflict and Change.

• Jurisdiction: Australia
• Date: 01 August 2006
• Author: Blagg, Harry

Will the Circle be Unbroken? Aboriginal Communities, Restorative Justice, and the Challenge of Conflict and Change Jane Dickinson-Gilmore and Carol La Prairie Toronto: University of Toronto Press, ISBN 0802086748

This handsomely presented text will be of considerable interest to anyone involved in the study of Indigenous people and criminal justice in post-colonial societies. It also has some important things to say about restorative justice that will enrich the debate. Of the two authors, Carol La Prairie will be the more familiar to an antipodean audience, having produced a corpus of excellent and well-grounded research on restorative justice and Aboriginal issues in Canada--I had not realised quite how extensive her authorship was though until I read this book and flicked through the reference section.

A number of the book's guiding images will be familiar to any reader interested in Australian Aboriginal issues. The symbol of the circle features prominently--the authors treating the construct with respect rather than as some soggy new age emblem. For First Nation peoples, the circle has power and authority--it symbolises 'the interconnectedness of all things' and is 'synonymous with balance, openness, and a holistic approach to life' (p. vii). It has resonance in Aboriginal Australia: and it is not surprising to find 'circle sentencing' being embraced as a kindred idea in parts of New South Wales. The very process of coming together in a circle radically disrupts the linear hierarchy of justice as it is practised in the mainstream, opening space for alternative narratives. However, the authors have a sobering message for those floating circle sentencing as a global panacea for Aboriginal over-representation.

The text is split into three parts. Part one, 'Defining the Challenges of Communities and Justice', provides a necessary background to the study of community justice by examining the complex heterogeneity and...